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Saturday, November 23, 2013

9 Weeks & Getting Things Done

This was the first picture I captured with my camera of Katherine's smile. In addition to smiling, she now coos- it's enough to melt your heart! Here's another cute pic I took one night this week with Eric's phone- Katherine didn't want to wake up & nurse one more time before I went to bed (notice the red hair!):

It seems that whenever you have a newborn, people ask how they are sleeping or what kind of schedule they are on. A lot of people have been asking me how I get it all done. HAH! I don't. Seriously. I'm behind in almost everything & it's going to be awhile before that changes... most days, I feel like I'll never catch up.

With past babies, they were on a regular 3 hour schedule of nursing, awake & sleep. I'm working on that with Katherine but honestly we're not there yet, especially during the day. She sleeps about 5+ hours at night, nurses & then sleeps another 3-4 hours. Yahoo! We need to work on naps during the day- Katherine prefers it to happen in your arms- but at least she is nursing/staying awake regularly... most of the time. ;)

The thing is, this might have stressed me out in the past but instead I'm soaking it all in. Katherine is growing so fast & I want to relish it all. I've got lots of helpers, so it's a bit easier if it were just me & a few really young ones. In those days, I could keep a tight schedule & our family was blessed by it. But I've come to hold a schedule a lot looser- yes, we have one because without a schedule, nothing would happen. But our schedule is more fluid now- it's more a list of what to do verses times. We've got a lot of people in this house & things can't happen at set times, every single day, year in & year out... or at least they can't happen with JOY.

Some things on our schedule are set (for the most part): meals, Bible, quiet hour, bedtime but what fits in between changes quit often. We go over the day's activities at breakfast & the children know what to do if it's a day of lessons. For a day of lessons, I always work with the youngest to oldest. The young ones who can't do independent work yet tag along with me most of the day after their lessons. They help me with my work or go off to play with set toys or people. If I let them wander, they get into trouble. Ask me how I know! ;) Older children work on independent studies until I'm ready to meet with them. If they finish early, they do chores & then have free time. The older children often stop their studies to help me (hold a fussy baby, play with a younger sibling, chores, etc) but they easily pick up their lessons when done. I call out for everyone to come for history or science or memory time or whatever when I have the moments to spare. We pick up where we left off the next day. Rarely do we do lessons in the later afternoon or evening except for piano & reading aloud. (Eric and I do history with Patricia one night a week & sometimes more but that's after littles go to bed.)

Independent work is only possible because I have it prepped. Remember this post about my educational planning? (I do not do daily lesson plans but I print & prep everything & file it so we can grab and go.) To keep record of what we're doing, the children write out what they've accomplished on a daily assignment sheet. The sheet lists what they are aim to get done each week.

I often tell Eric I'm amazed at all we get done because it's so busy here! Between nursing (I do that a lot), laundry, meal prep and cleaning, we fit in our lessons. It often means someone is reading to me or reciting something to me while I'm doing something else. Music is almost always going on. Several children are usually working around me. It's BUSY and sometimes a bit loud. Kinda like a rock concert. (Not that I've been to one.) I get tired of the busyness & noise sometimes and I look forward to a bit of quiet time but I'm so thankful for these little people who fill my day to the fullest. One day, they'll all be gone and I'm going to miss them. One day, Eric and I will be done teaching them in our home. That means we'd better be diligent because that "one day" is coming QUICK!